Grandma and Liam!

About a week ago, we went over to Mikey's Mom's place because they were drilling into the concrete of our building and we figured the noise was too much for Liam (although he slept right through it, so perhaps the noise was too much for our overly-protective new parent sensibilities).  The first day we were just thankful for the quiet and that Liam slept better than he normally does.  The second day, we planned on bringing the camera to take some pictures of our visit.  But as we now must bring an entire backpack full of stuff for the boy, we forgot the camera in the wake of all the other things we were trying to remember.

Thankfully, Grandma came over to visit one day this week so we were able to get a picture of Liam with Grandma.

Thanks for visiting Mom!  And thanks for the bentos!

Three Weeks Old

Well, the third week has come and gone and not much to say for it other than we seem to have a developed a little routine.  True to most newborns, Liam doesn't do much other than sleep, eat, and cry, so there really hasn't been much of a reason to take pictures.  Here are a few, anyway, to mark the passage of time.

Here we are comparing the size of our hands to the size of Liam's head.

It's been fairly hot lately, and with no AC, we've had to let the boy run around naked!

The doctor encouraged us to take Liam out for novelty since he's tending toward fussiness lately and our little trips never fail to calm him down.  Apparently, they calm Dad down too.

Poppa and Liam!

The other day my dad stopped by to visit us. We got a picture of poppa and Liam (whom he affectionately calls "number four")

Thanks for stopping by, dad!

Glowworm

Liam had jaundice after we brought him home from the hospital and it got worse over the next couple of days.  After our appointment at the doctor, they decided to put him on home phototherapy treatment to help get the bilirubin out (that's what causes the yellow and can have a detrimental effect on the part of the brain that deals with balance and movement).  So we had to attach a paddle to him that emitted light meant to help breakdown the bilirubin.

He looked like a glowworm with a tail!  I have to say that while the paddle thing did help lower his bilirubin levels, it took an awful long time (4 days) and an excessive amount of hassle for the result.  The lesson learned here is that the next time the doctor suggests home therapy for something that is normally done in the hospital, I'm going to tell them that we'd prefer the hospital.  Yuckier, yes, but quicker and more effective with less stress to our Liam.

First Bath

At three days old, we decided it was high time Liam had a bath.  That was kind of daunting, but as with all things daunting, we just went to get it over with!

He was fairly mellow about it given that he really doesn't like to be cold.  

Afterward, we dressed him in his little duckie kimono-style onesie and matching cap.  

Then we thought the better of it and dressed him in something simpler.  Besides, this outfit is still a little big and we're still a little paranoid.  Both things are slowly resolving themselves.

Exploding Into Existence

So Mikey's coworkers in the Governor's Office were going to take us to tea this past week to thank our little alien for not coming out during their busy period and letting Dad get some work done.  Turns out, it was really a surprise baby shower!  They had food and cute little favors.  And plenty of people were there.

Exhibit One: The cute little favors

There was only one problem.  The party was on Tuesday and our little Liam exploded into existence on Saturday, July 2!  

Liam Gene Satoru Ng

So our little alien is of the male variety!  He was born at 807p on July 2, 2011, and was 6lbs. 6.3oz, and 19.75in long.  I won't give the gruesome details of the labor and birth other than to say that he was born natural with no drugs and no epidural (toward the end I asked for the epidural thinking I still had a long way to go, but he came too fast!  That was why it felt so unbearable!), and he literally did explode into existence given that once delivery actually began, it only took eight minutes.  Well, I had been telling him that it was time for that for the past couple of days, so at least he was obedient.  

We  have since brought him home and are experiencing the joys and frustrations of new parenthood.  We've been told that this time is magical and that it goes by too fast.  Honestly, we've agreed we don't like the floppy newborn stage.  Liam has our blessing to grow a little bigger and a little less floppy, and then stay there.

Yeah, we have fallen victim to the new parent bias...this guy is one cute buggah!

Iolani Shower 4.0

Mikey's classmates from Iolani threw us our fourth! baby shower last weekend.  Ann, the consummate party planner was point and Vanessa, who just had her second baby, did all of the games.  I'm always amazed at people's generosity, but I particularly appreciate this group, who has welcomed me a fold that has ties going way back.

I didn't get as many photos from this party, held at Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch, and Crab, but when I got home, I took some pictures of some of the cute clothes we got as gifts.  (And a big thank you to everyone who was kind enough not to get us anything huge since really, nothing more will fit in this condo!)

We are Team Monkey, so of course we got lots of cute monkey things.  Funny enough, even monkeys, which should be fairly neutral, are mostly divided into girl monkeys and boy monkeys.  These ones are pretty good though.

One of our friends, Andrea, makes little baby clothes under the label Camijoy Designs.  This is one she gave us as part of our gift.

And Mikey's friends know us fairly well, so we got two little Yoda onsies!  We exchanged one of the Yodas for a Darth Vader so the little alien has something to wear on good days and something to wear on dark days.

There is also a photo running around of Mikey with one of the hooded towels on his head.  Once I get my hands on that, I'm going to share!